The Young Scientists Week Long Summer Science Camp

Whether you run your own summerscience camp for a school, run an at home camp or daycare, or just want to do fun activities with your kids, we have you covered. A group of wonderful bloggers have put together week long themed summer camps to give you lots of new ideas. Maybe you need a lesson plan or maybe you need a few simple science or STEM activities to try out!

A WEEK OF SUMMER SCIENCE CAMP FOR THE YOUNG SCIENTIST

Below you will find tons of great ideas for a science camp! Most have links to full articles!

These activities can work for multiple ages from preschool through early elementary school. There’s so much learning, playing, and exploring going on this summer. I have found great science snacks, games, projects, and of course experiments and activities for each day of the week.

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Each day has its own theme with several experiments and activities listed to try. You can modify them or add to them as you need to for different abilities. Encourage kids to use their journals for field notes!

CREATE A SCIENCE CAMP KIT

Start your summer science camp week by presenting each young scientist with some equipment! My son loves to get all dressed up like a scientist. Plus, you can lessen mess a bit. Protective eyewear is always important.

Each day have the kids use their journals to write or draw about what they learned, observed, and created! A great way to practice writing, mark making, and drawing over the summer months! Set up a homemade science kit.

Popcorn:Brown lunch size paper bags and corn kernels. Measure out 1/4 cup and place in bag, fold top over and place in microwave. Set time between 2:30 and 3 minutes. When the popping slows take it out! Compare the 1/4 cup of kernels to the now popped corn. How many cups did it make. What changed the corn? What is volume?

Homemade Popsicles: Explore reversible change with homemade popsicles. Grab your favorite juice, popsicle sticks, and small disposable cups. Point out that water (juice) can exist in three states, liquid, solid, and gas!

Freeze your cups of juice. You can use tinfoil with slits in the top to hold the popsicle sticks in place. Now have the kids observe the state of matter of ice? Make a couple extra and note what happens when the popsicle melts and refreezes. This is an example of reversible change. Extra fun: Explore why ice cubes float instead of sink (hint ice is unique in that as it freezes it becomes less dense).

SUMMER SCIENCE CAMP GAMES

Have fun playing and learning. Fun science camp games to play together.

Sense of Touch Game: We used paper sandwich bags. Number the bags, at least 10. Put an object inside each bag. Have the kids stick their hands in bag, feel object, and make a guess. They can write down their answers or draw what they think it is. For younger children keep the objects simple and familiar. For older kids, make it challenging.

Nature Scavenger Hunt : use egg crates or paper bags to collect a list of items that you can paste directly onto the carton or bag. You can choose specific items based on your area.

Senses Scavenger Hunt : As above but this time have a list of senses to find. Find something rough. Find something red. Listen for a bird. Leave a few snacks out for sense of taste!

Plastic Cup Tower Building Contest : Have teams build towers! You can get the large plastic cups or even mini ones at the dollar store. Who can build the tallest tower or who can stack 50 cups the fastest?

Nature I Spy Game:Collect nature items on a table. You can either play the traditional I spy and ask questions to one another or you can play a memory game. Study the items and then close eyes. Have on person take an item away. Can you guess what’s missing. Work all together or pair kids together.

SUMMER SCIENCE CAMP: MAKE AND TAKES

Each day of science camp have your little scientist campers make a project to take home! Great way to extend learning as they discuss their projects with friends and family!

Make Boats : Save all those recyclables! Plastic bottles, jugs, milk cartons, and cans are perfect! Add straws, craft supplies, corks, and sponges. You can laminate paper and cut into triangles for sales. Punch holes to thread on a straw. Test your boats down the tin foil river.

SUMMER SCIENCE DAY CAMP 2: All About Chemical Reactions

Science camp wouldn’t be complete without fizzing, bubbling chemical reactions. What happens when two things mix? Test two different chemical reactions using common household ingredients. There are several unique ways to see these chemical reactions in action.

SUMMER SCIENCE CAMP DAY 5: Open Ended Exploration Stations

The last day of science camp is all about creating and exploring. For the past 4 days, kids have seen how science works! Now set them loose to explore, discover, and invent! Make simple stations for kids to try out. Encourage problem solving, creating, and engineering.

Nature Station: Use your resources! Gather your nature, collect rain water, and set up a table. Add a mirror, magnifying glass, flash light, and tweezers! This is a great place to take out the colored pencils or crayons and field guide! Grab some contact paper and make a window hanging by sandwiching nature finds in the contact paper.

Invention Station: Boxes, recyclables, pool noodles, painters tape, egg crates, styrofoam, old CDs, string, plastic fruit baskets. You name it! Kids can work together or independently to invent something cool! Have the kids sketch an idea and draw the finished invention. Write a little about what the invention can do.

Ramps and Measurement Station. Rain gutters make great ramps since nothing will fall off! Quite cheap at the hardware store too. Gather all sorts of objects of different size and weight as well as cars. We bought one rain gutter and sawed it in half. Have races and predict which object will win. Put the ramps at different angles to see if the objects go faster or slower. Use a tape measure to see how far different items go!

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Comments

Your ideas are fantastic! I just finished planning my own science camp. If only I had discovered your resource a few weeks ago. I am also doing dissecting during our week together. I will certainly save your plans for the future. Blessings!